Sunday Funday! (35)

Happy Sunday everyone! Today was just about the laziest day of my life. And why might that be, you ask? Two words:

Veronica Mars. In some twist of evil/awesome, Netflix decided it would be an EXCELLENT idea to put this show, which I had heard a ton of great things about, on their Watch Instantly queue, so I could get it direct to my TV through my Wii. So what was going to became a controlled watching of the show a few episodes at a time via the old red envelope model has suddenly turned into the "Heather stays in her lamb-print PJ bottoms until 2pm" model. I'm almost done with season 2, but I'm not deleting these from my Watch Instantly queue because they are SO GOOD. People. Seriously. If you have never watched Veronica Mars, do it. Now. I was skeptical at first, and it definitely took me a few episodes to warm up to it, but I am obsessed. And my friend Shana is having a watch-along with discussion on her blog. Shana attributes everything she learned about writing mysteries to studying Veronica Mars, and I can definitely see what she's talking about.

Anyway, so now that I'm done talking about how totally lazy I am and admitting my love of the lamb-print PJ pants I've had since the ninth grade (yes, really, but I love those things to death), here are some great blog posts from around the Internet that you should check out while I watch more Veronica Mars!

Agents and editors always say they want a book that's "high concept." But what the heck does high concept mean? Agent Elana Roth explains in this post from Adventures in Children's Publishing.


YA author Michelle Hodkin gives some excellent tips on how to get noticed at a writer's conference! (Note: tips may or may not be served with a healthy side of sarcasm.)

If you're looking for legitimate tips on attending conferences, check out this post by Kiersten White. Who is extremely awesome, by the way, so if you do happen to meet her in real life, please do say hello and don't let her super awesome author status stop you (so, in short, listen to her first piece of advice, which may or may not be a reference to me and my friend. I have no idea what you're talking about. Let's just watch some Veronica Mars and we can forget this ever happened, hm?)

Literary agent Jennifer Laughran has an excellent post on why you shouldn't be too mad that the Justin Biebers, Popes, and Hillary Duffs of the world are publishing children's books so easily while you wait and wait and wait for your Big Break.

The lovely Amna had an excellent guest post on YA Highway about how your taste in books doesn't make you better than anyone else. Since I've dealt with this phenomenon often, I have to say...well done, lady.

Natalie Whipple writes about why you shouldn't really care about trends (even though you obsess over them) because there's nothing you can do about them anyway.

Jodi Meadows reminds us not to give up, in a guest post on Corrine Jackson's blog.

Write on Con starts on Tuesday! Are you ready? Are you signed up? Head on over here if the answer is no! It's free and it's online!

I was also going to link to a bunch of great SCBWI-LA posts, but I think YA Highway did a wonderful job of picking out the best in last week's Field Trip Friday. So just go there if you want to see a list of some great SCBWI posts.

OK, have a great week everyone!